Love Square
by dedic8ted
Summary: For some Wildcats, a summer at Lava Springs just leads to a whole lot of unrequited romance. RyanKelsiTroyGabriella square. Oneshot inspired by a random plot bunny. Takes place during HSM2.


AN: For my birthday, my parents are getting me _High School Musical_, a Porsche convertible, and Disneyland. Not. Haha, I'd probably crash the Porsche anyways.

Take a peek into the minds of four teenagers during an unforgettable summer. Just a (very) short oneshot with little point. And BTW, I'm normally a Ryelsi fan so the Trelsi and Ryella parts might not be too great.

...

Ryan loved Kelsi Nielsen.

He'd felt that way the moment he saw her—love at first sight, some would say. He loved her fingers while they were playing the piano, the soft brown curls always pushed up under a hat. He loved her hats, her small round glasses, the way her gray eyes lit up when she talked about her music. The music, of course, that had not been tainted by Sharpay. That led to another point. She would never love him back, not when he—well, rather, Sharpay—treated her so badly. He knew it wasn't lust, it was love. A love that would never be returned.

Besides, she was always with the basketball team. She probably liked one of them. But he was surprisingly okay with it. Even though it stirred something in him—jealousy, perhaps, he especially loved her when she was happy. And although he ached to be the one to make her happy, he felt like he owed that basketball player his life. Because she smiled, radiantly, when she was with them. And if she stopped smiling like that, he would die. He knew she didn't like him back.

Even so, he still loved her.

...

Kelsi liked Troy Bolton.

It was okay, she reasoned, because since sixth grade, every girl had to like him at least once. If she didn't, she was a little scared. Because every girl who knew Troy Bolton liked him for some period in her life—that's just the way the world worked. But she was aware that her little schoolgirl crush was the most pointless thing in the world. He was already infatuated with Gabriella. He and Kelsi were perfectly fine as friends, and, to tell the truth, Kelsi thought that Troy and Gabriella were the cutest couple ever.

But as much as she tried, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about him at the oddest times. She dismissed it as a whim, not love at all, just something that would be forgotten in a few months. And thinking that way about her friend's boyfriend? Not cool. She ignored the weak feeling she got when he smiled and the butterflies in her stomach when he spoke to her. Never mind he was the first person who actually paid attention to her—well, him and Gabriella, but whatever. Because eventually, her crush would lead to absolutely nothing.

She hated the fact that she liked him.

...

Troy wanted Gabriella Montez.

Actually, to be specific, he wanted her _back_. He'd already had her before—the key word there being "before." Before he'd started being over an hour late to dates. Before Sharpay had started practically hanging all over him. Before he'd gotten so caught up with the scholarship. Before. He missed her. He missed the smell of her hair, their secret rendezvous at the rooftop greenhouse, and—though he was loath to admit it—he missed telling other guys to keep away from his girl. Because she wasn't really Troy's girl anymore. They hadn't actually broken up, just sort of drifted away.

He had been a jerk, he was aware of that. It was no surprise that Gabriella had stopped talking with him. But he regretted it. Did she even know how much he wanted her back? His dad might disagree, but he knew he would give everything he had worked for: the cushy golf job, the new Italian shoes, the scholarship to U of A—which was a _full freaking ride_—to get back together with her.

That was how much he wanted her.

...

And Gabriella noticed Ryan Evans.

She had to say she'd always thought of him as Sharpay's pushover twin brother. It was only after the baseball game, after he'd agreed to help them with the talent show, and after Troy had started acting all weird, that she'd really _noticed _him. She was suddenly watching him all the time, studying his every move. She found that he was left-handed, that he liked to dance with live music rather than a radio, that he had a thousand little quirks that she never knew about before, that his eyes were not gray, as she previously thought, but could turn ice blue or cerulean or pale green depending on what he wore.

Gabriella didn't know if just _thinking_ about Ryan counted as cheating on Troy. But then again, she and Troy weren't exactly together anymore. He was actually kind of like Troy, if she thought about it—only not as focused on basketball all the time and not as… _desired_ by the female population of East High. And the tingly feeling she got when he was around only increased when she was paired with Ryan during the dance rehearsal. She knew that it was wrong, that Troy was going through a lot and she should be the Loyal Girlfriend, but the truth was, she was sick of it.

She also noticed that Ryan was currently single.

...

But all four of them knew one thing very well: real life didn't always end happily ever after. You couldn't mess with fate. Or could you?

...

AN: As I said before, very short. Exceeded your expectations? Disappointed? Somewhere in between? Review please!


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